When in Equestria
by Corporal Grumpy
Summary: It's another peaceful day in Equestria until they receive frog-like visitors from another world. When in Equestria do as Equestrians do, or they won't make it back home.
1. A Mystery in Ponyville

Today was Re-Shelving day at the library and Twilight Sparkle had just finished re-shelving all the books. She took a step back and let out a self-satisfied sigh as she gazed them over to double-check whether or not she missed anything. "Nope. Everything seems to be in order." she chirped as Spike came into the room cooing over a gem stone he'd just found. "Oh, hello, Spike! What have you got there?" she asked, showing interest in what her little buddy was up to. Spike looked up at her from his stone and looked for a moment before acknowledging she was talking to him. "Oh! Um...I just found this gem lying around while I was helping Rarity search for more gem stones. This is the strangest one I've seen and was kind of saving it. Would be a shame to eat it before finding out what kind it is, though." Twilight chuckled and took a few steps closer to get a better look at it. "Um...Spike?" she asked, cocking her head to the side as she leaned in and examine it further. "Yeah?" Spike asked, wondering what she could possibly have to tell him about the stone he found. "This isn't a gem stone." she finally said.

The "gem" appeared to be some sort of device crystallized by some peculiar spell.

It was hours later and Twilight was going through all the books she'd just re-shelved, and couldn't find anything that looked like what Spike had found. What it appeared to be confounded her. It was sitting on her desk as Spike sat nearby on the stairs, swaying his little dragon feet to and fro. "Found anything yet?" He asked, as he watched another book fly by.

"No no no no no." Twilight muttered. "There has to exist some sort of technology like that in at least _one_ of these books. And I'm also curious as to what could have crystallized it like that." She groaned a frustrated groan and slumped to the floor before whining about the shelves of books she'd just disheveled.

Spike walked over and patted his disgruntled pony friend on the back. "It's okay, Twi. We can maybe ask around, see if anypony knows what it might be. Maybe get some lunch while we're out. You need a break." Twilight sighed in defeat and nodded. She hadn't really eaten since that morning and it was past lunch, so she was actually kinda hungry. And who knew? Maybe Spike was onto something about asking other ponies about the strange crystallized device.

Twilight and Spike trotted through Ponyville, stopping everypony they passed and asked them about the strange object.

"No. Sorry, Twilight. Never seen anything like it before." Miss Cheerilee said with a slow shake of her head. "But I wish you luck on finding out where it came from."

Twilight sighed and tucked the object back into her sack with her magic and nodded farewell to Cheerilee as she headed off to the Cakes' bakery.

Before Twilight and Spike could enter the bakery Pinkie Pie came bounding through the door screeching and laughing and hopping circles around them. "You seem awfully cheerful today, Pinkie." Twilight said, watching her friend bounce around. "I'm always cheerful!" the pink earth pony exclaimed as she came to a stop. "I haven't seen you all day! How long did it take you to re-shelve today?" Twilight once again used her magic to open her sack and remove the strange crystallized object. "Actually something came up. Have you by any chance seen anything like this before?"

Pinkie squinted her eyes at it. "It looks like-" her eyes shot wide open and she gasped.

"That looks like the thingy someone was in the bakery looking for earlier!" Twilight gasped as well and Pinkie Pie continued "I mean I didn't see who was asking because I was playing with the twins but Mrs. Cake said he was an unusual looking fellow and the thing she described looked just like that! All round and black and covered in buttons with funny symbols on them!"

Twilight's face lit up with excitement "Do you think Mrs. Cake might know where this stranger may have gone?"

Pinkie Pie, who was more than up for a bit of adventure and returning lost items, rushed inside. Spike and Twilight exchanged glances and entered the bakery after her. Mrs. Cake was standing before Pinkie and Twilight approached her. "Excuse me Mrs. Cake, but Pinkie was just telling me you saw who was looking for this?" She held out the object once more for Mrs. Cake to see and Mrs. Cake nodded slowly. "I did." Twilight sighed in relief. She was getting closer to finding out what this thing was. "Do you know which direction he went?" the purple unicorn inquired hopefully.

Mrs. Cake nodded and glanced to the side. "He headed towards Sweet Apple Acres."

Twilight thanked her and nudged Spike onto her back. "Come one, Pinkie. Maybe Applejack has a lead for us."

A bushel of apples tumbled from the treetops as Applejack's hind hooves slammed into the tree trunk. They landed neatly into Applejack's bucket and she gave a satisfactory grin. "That should about do it." Applejack heaved the bucket onto her back and made her way back to the farm when she saw Pinkie and Twilight waiting for her up ahead. "Hey, gals! What are you up to?"

Twilight moved to take the bucket of apples from Applejack and carry them the rest of the way. "Oh, we just came to maybe ask you if you'd seen a strange creature come through here and ask about a strange object?" Applejack stopped and looked at her friend. "Well yeah, actually. I was going to find you and ask you about it when I finished workin'." Twilight set the apples down and panted. It was harder work than she thought carrying those apples.

Spike reached for one of the apples only to be swatted by Applejack's tail. "No."

Spiked sighed and set the apple back into the bucket.

"So we're all on some mission to find out what this thing is, now?" Applejack asked as she trotted alongside Twilight and Pinkie Pie. Pinkie shouted "YES!" rather excitedly.

"Though I don't see why it's got to be such a big deal." Spike interjected. Twilight looked back at Spike and shrugged the best a trotting pony could shrug. "Well this could be a big discovery. This is very different technology than anyone in Ponyville- Neigh. Possibly even all of Equestria- has ever seen before. It could change things. Wouldn't it be great to be the first ones in Equestria to find out what it is?" Twilight's enthusiasm was showing a little- no, a lot. This could be the discovery of a century and she was determined to learn all about it. Just then a scream split the calm of the Ponyville streets, alarming Twilight and her friends. "That sounded like Rarity!" Spike exclaimed in horror. "We've got to go help her!"

Spike started running ahead to Rarity's boutique and the others galloped along behind to catch up.

Rarity was screaming and tip-toeing frantically on top of one of her stools when they arrived and Spike rushed to her side. "Rarity! Rarity what's wrong?"

She shrieked one last time before calming down and looking around, cautiously.

"I was sorting through the gems Spikey Wikey and I gathered when out of nowhere this big gross slimy green creature came at me and EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The fabulously groomed unicorn was still traumatized by her encounter and it took Twilight a whopping 10-15 minutes just to get her to breathe normally again.

When Rarity came around again , Twilight asked "So about this…slimy green thing?"

Rarity shook her head slowly, as if it was a tragic memory she was loathe to recall. "He came in and asked me about my gems and he was just so gross I thought he was going to take all my precious gem stones and kidnap me as well!" At this Spike huffed and stuck his chest out. "Whoever did this is going to have to answer to me!"

"Calm down, you two. I think this…thing Rarity saw might be after this-" Twilight said as she pulled out the strange object "And knew about it's crystallized state. Which is why he must have asked about the gems. Maybe he thought this thing was mixed up with them because of the condition it is in."

Rarity gave a "harumph!"

"So Rarity, did you see which way he went?" Twilight asked. "Yes." Rarity replied. "He started towards the Everfree Forest when I started screaming. I probably startled him as much as he startled me. Wait- You aren't seriously thinking of _going_?" Rarity asked when she saw Applejack already heading for the door. "Of course!" Pinkie exclaimed as she bounced along behind Applejack. Twilight laughed and got up to walk out with them. "Well we are trying to find out what this thing is, and that creature you scared away just might have the answers we need."

"Well I'm not going." Rarity stated as she planted her butt firmly onto the ground. Applejack turned her head to face her and smiled "Well you don't have to come. It's not like we need the whole gang. We just wanna ask a few questions is all." Twilight nodded in agreement and added "Besides, if it would make you feel uncomfortable then we won't force you."

Rarity smiled at her friends. "Thanks for understanding."

As they headed out the door, Spike stayed back. "Guys? I think I'll stay here with Rarity in case that thing comes back." Twilight chuckled and continued on. "Alright Spike. You two take care."

Twilight, Pinkie, and Applejack stood outside the Everfree Forest and they were each hit with a wicked chill down their spines. "Well, girls. You think this creature might be from these woods?" Twilight asked. "I don't know, but now I ain't so sure I'd want to meet him if'n he was." Applejack added. Pinkie began prancing forward, obviously not as phased by the dark atmosphere as her friends. Applejack and Twilight exchanged glances before following after.

"Hello?" Twilight called out into the dark woods as they moved deeper in. "Whoever you are, green thing, we have the device you're looking for. Could you tell us what it is, maybe? Hello?"

Applejack looked behind some nearby bushes. "Show yourself, please."

The bushes began rustling and Applejack jumped lightly in surprise. "Hey! Come out of there!" she demanded as she leaned forward towards the bush.

"BOO!"

Pinkie jumped out of the bushes and scared Applejack into toppling over backwards. Pinkie snorted and began rolling around laughing. "Oh, Applejack! The look on your face!"

Twilight gave her a stern look. "Pinkie, don't scare us like that."

"Heehee Sorry. I just couldn't resist"

Applejack got up and chuckled "It's alright. You got me real good, Pinkie."

Close behind a dark figure lurked in the shadows.

"How deep into this forest do you think we have to go before we find who, or what, we're looking for, Twilight?" Applejack asked as Twilight stopped to use her horn as a light source as it got darker the further into the forest they trekked. "I'm not sure, Applejack. But I'm getting this sinking feeling that maybe it didn't come this far in."

"Guys, am I the only one who feels like we're being followed?" Pinkie chimed in, her voice low and full of caution.

"Now that you mention it…" Twilight said as she looked over at her friend. "I do, too."

Before Applejack could give a 'me three', a strange sound echoed from the trees around them.

"Gero gero gero gero"

Twilight jumped and backed into a small circle with Applejack and Pinkie. "Wh-Who goes there?" she asked, her voice shaking with fear. She'd never heard anything in the forest make that sound, before.

The voice spoke again.

"Gero gero gero. Ah! Thank you! You've found my Kero Ball. I've been looking everywhere for it."

"Kero Ball?" Applejack wondered aloud as Twilight realized what the voice meant and gasped as she pulled out the strange crystallized object from her sack.

"Yes, that." the voice confirmed as a small green creature emerged from the shadows in front of them. And he looked surprisingly un-menacing.

In fact he kind of looked like a, well…a frog.

"My goodness he's so cute!" Pinkie squealed as Twilight cautiously stepped forward with the Kero Ball towards the frog.

"Who are you? And what is this '_Kero Ball_'?"

"Gero gero" the frog mused before giving the purple unicorn the answers she so desired.

"I am Sergeant Keroro of the Keron army from planet Keron; Leader of the Keroro Platoon. And that Kero ball is our greatest weapon."

"What?" the three ponies gasped in unison at the last thing he said. "W-Weapon?" Twilight stammered. "What do you plan on doing with it?"

Keroro scratched his head and shrugged. "Well, I didn't think I was going to have to explain what exactly we're doing until later, since this chapter was supposed to end in a cliffhanger right there. But I guess the next chapter won't make as much sense If we leave it like that."

"So, uh…Keroro?" Applejack piped up in the middle of the Keronian's 4th wall breach, "Were you by any chance the feller that was following us through the forest?"

"Who, me? No. I just now found you guys."

Twilight Sparkle felt a cold, foreboding chill run down her spine and glanced at Pinkie and Applejack. Pinkie didn't seem to get what that implied but Twilight could tell Applejack was realizing it, too. So Twilight spoke up to break the awkward chill of silence "Okay, well. Let's just get out of here. We found who we were looking for so let's get back to the library and we can discuss this Kero ball and…whether or not it would be a good idea to find a way to revert it back to it's normal state." Pinkie and Applejack nodded, and Keroro, too, as anyplace that possibly had some comics he could read sounded way better than standing out in a boring old forest.

Twilight nodded and lead everyone back into Ponyville and to her library home.


	2. More of You

"AGH! I can't believe that buffoon took off like that!"

"Kukukuku…He's probably even more lost than we are."

In the middle of the Everfree Forest stood three Keronians, obviously trying to find their way out. Tamama, the youngest of them, stopped trekking along and sat down to rub his rumbling stomach. "Guys, there's a rumbly in my tumbly and I don't think I can take another step without some sort of nourishment." he whined "And where is Sergeant? We should have found him by now. We've been looking for, like, way forever."

"If I knew where Keroro was, do you think we'd still be looking for him and a way out of here?" Giroro snapped. "And quit your moping, Private! We can get food once we get out of here."

"Kukuku" Sergeant Major Kururu chuckled at Giroro's short temper. His fuse was lit so easily.

"And what do you think you're laughing at, Kururu?" Giroro turned his stress-induced fury onto the amused yellow Keronian. "We still don't even know how we got here or what even attacked us! Let's just stick together and get the hell out of this nightmare!"

"Fine." Tamama mumbled as he got up and continued walking.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"_No_."

"Are we there yet?"

"No!"

"Are we there yet?"

"NO TAMAMA WE ARE NOT THERE YET! DOES IT LOOK LIKE WE'RE THERE, YET?"

The little blue tadpole huffed and kept quiet until the Corporal faced forward again.

"Are we there yet?"

"DAMMIT, KURURU! DON'T YOU START!"

"Kukuu"

The unusual still and quiet of the forest was broken by the rustling of the trees when there was no breeze to be felt.

"Something's following us." Giroro whispered to Kururu and Tamama. The both of them slowly kneeled to the ground and hunched over as Giroro whipped around on his heel and began firing into the darkness between the trees. The rustling had stopped and as Kururu and Tamama were getting back to their feet a large Chimera leapt from the trees and landed in front of them, blocking their path.

"Tch." Giroro stared down the beast and it hungrily stared back. As Giroro's trigger finger began itching Tamama leapt forward with his Tamama Impact and just barely missed the creature. It did little harm seeing as Tamama's aim was off and the beast snarled.

The Chimera crouched, ready to pounce and Giroro knocked Tamama out of the way and began firing. One of the blasts grazed the creature's cheek, but did no real damage. He cursed under his breath as the beast's predatory gaze fixated on him. It seemed their weapons were next to useless here. Wherever "here" was. Either their power lessened or this was no average beast. Either way it was going to be a long day for the war-happy Corporal.

In the time it took Giroro to take another breath, the beast had him pinned beneath it's massive, stinking weight. With each breath, fire flickered from the Chimera's mouth through curled back lips and bared fangs. Giroro gulped and hoped the creature wouldn't breath any harder because as far as he knew, he wasn't all that down with the idea of becoming a roasted frog-leg delicacy.

As Giroro attempted pulling his arm out from under the beast's ragged claws, the Chimera was knocked away by another Tamama Impact. The Chimera yelped and slid on it's side across the forest floor until it's back collided with a tree behind it. Giroro pulled himself back up rather quickly and shot a glance at the Sergeant Major as Private 2nd Class Tamama stood ground, battle stance ready, next to him, the Corporal.

"You could, I don't know, maybe stand to do something right about now, soldier!" Giroro snapped at Kururu and he gave his reply in the form of his usual mischievous laugh. "Alright then kukuu." Kururu approached as the Chimera pulled itself to it's feet. The snake head on it's back slithered forward while Kururu opened his headphones, releasing it's antennae, and giving them a twist. "You both might want to cover your ears kukuku."

Tamama and Giroro quickly did so in a panicked manner, knowing full well what was about to happen and knew full well Kururu wouldn't wait for them to dawdle.

From his headphones he emitted high frequency waves of sound to disorient the Chimera. He stopped only when the creature started bleeding from all four, possibly six, and Tamama noticed it begin to stagger and Tamama took advantage of the opportunity to slam it with another Tamama Impact and sent it flying deeper back into the forest beaten and disoriented.

"Good work Private." Giroro commended the tadpole as he lowered his weapons and began moving on.

"Yay for me!" Tamama chirped as he and Kururu followed suit. It was best they got out of there before the beast regained it's senses and came back for revenge.

The forest became less dark and eerie with every step they took. It looked as if they just might find their way out, after all. With renewed vigor and excitement for a change of scenery, the Keronians picked up the pace until the trees ended and they were greeted right in the face by a fist of sunlight. Or at least that's how it would feel if the sun had a fist and punched them in their faces. It was pretty bright.

"It…It burns." Tamama said cheerfully, overall relieved to be out of the dark forest. Giroro squinted up into the sunlight, using his hand and gun as a visor. Eventually their eyes would adjust. "There…" Giroro muttered. "Everything's coming into focus." He lowered his gaze to the valley ahead of them. Beautiful greenery and quaint little villages and castles as far as their sun attacked eyes could see.

"What is this place?" Tamama inquired in what almost sounded like amazement. Giroro didn't answer, but he wondered the same thing.

Neither of them noticed Kururu whimpering and clawing at his eyes in the background.

A short trek and badly stitched together plants as sun protection for Kururu's eye's later they approached a small town filled with what looked like brightly colored horses.

"Horses?" Tamama wondered out loud. Kururu laughed, "Actually they're ponies. Much too small to be horses. They aren't your average ponies as they are the ones that built this place." Giroro's head turned slowly in Kururu's direction. "Have you been here before? How do you know this?" Kururu laughed again, "No. I've never been here before." It didn't completely answer Giroro's question but that wasn't all that important right now.

"Pony Civilization." Tamama muttered and then his face lit up with excitement. "I wonder if they have cakes and sweets!"

"I don't know if ponies even eat sweets, but it wouldn't hurt to go find out, then, I guess." Giroro began as he began moving forward. "For all we know, Keroro could be in there, somewhere. So let's go do some asking around."

The three of them strolled into Ponyville and stopped to take in the sights. At first nopony realized there were 3' frogs just at the entrance of the town staring in awe at the bustling, yet peaceful, streets of Ponyville. Tamama had spotted the bakery and began to wander off before Giroro grabbed a hold of the young tadpole and held him there. "Not so fast, Private. Now we know there's sweets. That should be good enough for you while we move onto more important matters- Like finding the Sergeant." Giroro let go of Tamama, assuming he'd stay put, and approached the nearest pony- A turquoise Unicorn with a mane a tail of white, pink, dark pink, and a darker turquoise. On her flank were images of little glasses of what appeared to be malt shop pops. Her tail was decorated with a cute pink bow at the base. Giroro suddenly realized there were images on all the rear ends of the ponies. As he started to wonder about that the Unicorn waved her hoof in his face to get his attention, "Yes, did you want something?" Giroro looked back at her and nodded. "Oh, uh…yeah. What is this place?"

The Unicorn smiled and looked at him with her dark pink eyes, "Well this is Ponyville. I can tell you're new here, so allow me to be the first to greet you!" She gave an elegant bow, "Welcome to Ponyville! My name's Fizzy. What brings you here to Ponyville?" Giroro gave a slight, awkward, and slightly impatient bow, which didn't go unnoticed by Fizzy.

"We're looking for another one of our group. We got separated outside of this town and have been looking for him since this morning." Fizzy nodded and looked back at her friend Galaxy, another Unicorn. This one was pink with a pink, red, and white mane and tail with tiny red stars decorating her flank. She, too, had a decorative pink bow on her tail. "Well, Galaxy…" Fizzy began, "You don't suppose we could help these poor guys?"

The other Unicorn approached and nodded, "Why yes, of course! We saw your friend earlier this morning!" She smiled warmly and nudged her friend. Fizzy continued, "Yes, he was asking us about some silly device like nothing we've ever heard of before. Last we saw him, he was at the bakery." Tamama squealed with delight and Giroro sighed in defeat. "We could take you there." Galaxy offered, but Giroro turned them down. It was best if they could just find Keroro and get going. "No thank you. We know how to get there. Thank you for your help. You've given us plenty." Fizzy and Galaxy nodded in understanding and bid the Keronians farewell and good luck.

"I want that one and that one and that one! Ooh that one looks really yummy, too!"

Tamama was bouncing around the Cakes' bakery laying claim to nearly everything in the shop. Little did he know, they didn't have the money to get anything and Giroro wasn't really going to get him anything even if they did. He may have told Tamama they'd get something to eat in town, but he more or less meant sometime after they found Keroro and had a sound game plan.

Mrs. Cake came to the front of the shop and her eyes widened in surprise, "Oh! There are more of you!" which confirmed that Keroro had been there.

"So you've seen our friend, ma'am?" Giroro asked, feeling like they were finally getting somewhere.

"Why, yes. I have. He came in and asked me about some strange device and then headed towards Sweet Apple Acres last I saw. Then a sweet little filly I know, Twilight, came in here looking for him. I think she may have found that device he was looking for and was going to being it to him."

Giroro asked for directions to Sweet Apple Acres, with thanks for the information and the Keronians made their leave. "I hope you find both, and good luck!" Mrs. Cake said as they left the shop and Tamama threw a fit for not having gotten any sweets.

The ponies in this town were all far too polite. Ponyville was too peaceful. Giroro found himself wondering if he'd be able stand another moment longer here.

Giroro, Tamama, and Kururu covered a lot of ground and made a lot of stops to ask about Keroro. From Sweet Apple Acres where Granny Smith gave them just about the same information as Mrs. Cake. Only Tamama got some apple treats out of this stop, which shut him up for the rest of the hunt. Their search ended at Rarity's boutique where she screamed and began kicking her mannequins in their direction. They easily dodged the only two that came near them, the rest actually came nowhere near hitting them. Rarity was too bugged out to aim properly.

"Listen, we-" Giroro began as Spike approached them and angrily wagged his finger at them. "Shame on you scaring a lady like that! Go on! Git! You're not welcome here!'

Giroro was taken aback and couldn't possibly comprehend what they did wrong, yet.

Feeling completely tired of the situation already, Giroro pushed the little dragon back onto his bum and crossed his arms firmly. "Listen. We're just looking for our friend. We want nothing from you other than information. This doesn't have to get ugly but you can bet it will if you don't comply. And quickly." Spike glared and got to his feet. "Geez, no need to be so pushy." Spike crossed his arms as well and locked gazes with Giroro. You could feel testosterone clashing in the air. "Your friend frightened Rarity and ran off towards the Everfree Forest. It's that big, spooky forest-y place outside of Ponyville. Then our friends went after him with his strange crystallized ball thing. If you want to find them, then you could go check there."

After the Keronians left, Rarity calmed down and started picking up her mannequins and Spike helped clean up. "Well, Rarity," Spike began, "It's about time I headed back. I need to tidy up for Twilight before she gets back, you know? She left the place a disaster before we left. Also it's getting late." Rarity nodded, "Thank you for staying with me, Spikey-wikey. It made me feel a lot better." Spike blushed and slowly backed out of Rarity's boutique, giggling sheepishly before turning and heading back home at a jog.

Giroro groaned and began thumping his forehead into the wall of the local restaurant. Kururu laughed, but kept to himself. He'd have offered to use the tracking device he'd recently implanted in Keroro, but there technology didn't seem to work as well in this world. It was a miracle he could even emit such a high pitched frequency to get them out of that rut with the Chimera. Tamama pat Giroro on the back, "Cheer up, Corporal. Sure the trail's gone cold, but I'm sure we'll find out something. It may be never, and we could be stuck here forever and possibly never get home ever again, but at least they have sweets." Giroro had, for the first time since he could remember, felt like shedding a single tear over how hopeless the situation was beginning to sound and how unhelpful Tamama was being. "Just shut up, Private." he grumbled.

"Kukukuuu." Kururu laughed. It was the usual laugh, but anyone who knew Kururu well enough could differentiate the slight differences in tone that indicated why he was laughing. Usually it was simply at the misfortune of others, but this one had more of a "I know something you don't know" tone. Giroro, leaning into the wall forehead first, slowly turned his face to get a look at the Sergeant Major, "What are you laughing about? Do you have any ideas that may be more useful that Tamama's?" Tamama grinned, "My ideas are never helpful."

"The answer's simple kukuu." Kururu began, "Why don't we ask where Twilight lives? She's the one looking for Keroro, too, right? If we wait for her there she might be able to tell us where he is."

Giroro felt incredibly stupid. The answer couldn't have been more obvious. "Kukukuku."

"Um…excuse me…" a quiet voice piped up from behind them.

The three Keronians turned to see they were being spoken to by a very timid looking light yellow Pegasus with butterflies on her flank. Her long pink mane overlapped one of her eyes, which was mostly due to her head being lowered. She must be ridiculously shy, Giroro surmised.

"I-I'm sorry to intrude, but I could help you find Twilight." the shy Pegasus offered, "Again, sorry to intrude. I just thought I'd…Just thought I'd help…" her voice became quieter and she hunkered down more with each word. Giroro's angry face intimidated her and she couldn't help but feel scared. He just came off as a very mean individual to her.

"You'd do that?" Giroro asked. She nodded and cowered just a little less as he spoke in a manner that wasn't frightening at all.

"What's your name?" he asked, pulling himself away from the way to face the Pegasus properly.

"Fluttershy." she muttered timidly.

"Well, then, Fluttershy. Could you please take us to the home of this 'Twilight'?"


	3. Reunited and it Feels so Good

It was hours past noon and the air was cooling down. Spike took note of this as he moved along at a brisk pace towards the library where he and Twilight Sparkle reside. It was quite a day, Spike thought. He went over the whole day in his head; How he found a strange object while gem hunting with Rarity and brought it back to Twilight, who was so intrigued by the mystery of it that she and himself went all over Ponyville for some clues as to what it might be. And how the slowest-paced part of the whole day would have been when he stayed with Rarity after Twilight, Pinkie, and Applejack headed for the Everfree Forest.

Now that he thought about it, he wondered if Twilight and the others had any success in their search.

Spike soon found out when he reached the library tree and pulled open the door to find Twilight scurrying around, re-shelving books, while Applejack and Pinkie stood in the middle of the room with another one of those strange frog men. Though this one was green. Spike didn't seem to be noticed so he helped himself inside and closed the door behind him with a brusque slam of the door. With the exception of the busy-body, Twilight, they all turned to see who came inside for a moment before going back to watching Twilight.

"So I see you found him." Spike said, raising his voice in an attempt to be noticed. They paid no more mind, it seemed. Spike steamed and bitterly made his way to the stairs before tripping over one of the books laying on the floor.

"Where's my book on the biology of Sea Ponies?" Twilight asked digging through pile of books. Spike looked at his feet to see the book she was looking for. He grabbed it, hopped to his feet and reluctantly made his way over to Twilight and handed it to her. "Here."

"Why thank you, Spike." Twilight said absent-mindedly a moment before it donned on her and she turned to face Spike as he began walking back towards the stairs. "Oh! Spike! When did you get here?" Spike stopped, feeling a little better that he was being acknowledged, and turned to face Twilight, "Actually I got here about a minute ago. So I can see your search was successful." Twilight nodded. "Yeah, actually. This is Keroro, Spike." she said as she nodded her head in Keroro's direction, "He's from another planet entirely and we're all going to talk about his device and a way to fix it once I'm done re-shelving again." Keroro walked over to a pile of books, finally caving into his urge to look through them for some comics, "Planet Keron, to be exact."

Spike looked at the green frog. This was the thing that scared Rarity? He, frankly, looked incredibly harmless compared to the red one he dealt with earlier that day. Thinking of the others he saw earlier, he was caught between feeling guilty and laughing at the fact that he possibly sent them into the Everfree Forest looking for their friend who was right here, now, in the safety of Twilight's library. Spike figured he might as well tell them, though. He figured it might be important.

"So, uh, guys." Spike said, trying to draw everyone's attention and Twilight pulled a book from Keroro's hands and put it up on the shelves. He didn't seem to care as it wasn't a comic book.

"So, guys." Spike started, again, "Some of Keroro's friends came by Rarity's boutique today. I told them you all might be in the Everfree Forest so they might be there. Just thought it was something you all should probably know."

"Gero!" Keroro exclaimed. "You mean you sent my men back into that dark, creepy forest?"

Spike shrugged. He wasn't all too sure what he did. All he cared about was that he managed to get them to leave so Rarity could calm down. "I don't know. Maybe. But for all I know they might have kept asking around. If I'd known you all were back already, I'd have brought them back with me." He shot a look at Twilight and Pinkie and Applejack looked at her, too. Twilight shrunk back sheepishly and laughed weakly. "I suppose I could have stopped by to let you know we were back when we first got back, huh? I'm sorry, Spike."

Spike shrugged. "Eh, it's cool."

Applejack and Pinkie began helping Twilight with the last few books. The room was already looking much cleaner and you could actually see the floor. Pinkie looked into one of the books and found a picture of a funny looking baboon creature and showed it to Twilight and Applejack, laughing about it's little blue butt. They laughed, too. It wasn't as funny to them, of course, but Pinkie's laughter was contagious and it was such a long day, they needed a good laugh at something goofy.

Spike walked up next to Keroro, who was browsing the books on the shelves. He seemed to have taken an interest in a book about and adventurer who always seems to get herself into trouble anywhere from ancient temples to old tombs. Keroro already seemed to be reading it intently, Spike observed. It didn't even occur to Spike to wonder how he was even able to read it.

"Daring Do?" Spike asked looking at the book in the Keronian's hands. "Twilight has all of them. They're pretty intense, I guess. I mean even our friend Rainbow Dash likes them a lot and she's not much of a reader."

Keroro looked up at Spike from the book, "There aren't any pictures but I can't help but hope she can make it to the entrance of the pyramid before the tomb seals and she's trapped there forever." It was clear in his tone that he was getting into the book and was about to get back to reading it when Spike drew his attention, "So hey could you tell me about your home planet?"

Spike was genuinely interested in hearing about other worlds in space, but before Keroro could answer, there came a light rapping on the door.

Twilight had just put up the last book when she heard the knock and smiled, "What great timing! Now I won't be embarrassed to have company!" not realizing she already had guests.

The lavender Unicorn reached the door and opened it to see the friendly face of her friend Fluttershy.

"Fluttershy! What brings you by?" Twilight asked, steeping aside and opening the door wide for her friend to step through. Fluttershy walked through the door with Giroro, Tamama, and Kururu right behind her.

"Um, Twilight?" the shy Pegasus began, "These are Giroro, Tamama, and Kururu. They're looking for their friend and they said he was with you, so I brought them here." Fluttershy noticed Keroro in the corner of the room then looked to Giroro. "Is that him?"

Twilight stepped back to make room for the other Keronians to make way to their leader. "Oh, well, welcome to my home." Twilight greeted them politely and they nodded in acknowledgement as they entered the library fully and approached Keroro as Flutterhsy moved to Twilight's side.

Twilight shut the door behind them and they moved to the other side of the room with Applejack and Pinkie to watch the reunion without interrupting or making it any less awkward than it would probably be since they were all out all over Ponyville looking for each other all day.

Spike stepped away towards the ponies when he saw Giroro approach. He still wasn't too comfortable around the red one.

"Well hello, men! I've finally found our Kero Ball!" Keroro greeted cheerfully with an arm raised in greeting.

Giroro sighed, "It was stupid of you to take off without us, and we may not have found you if it weren't for these ponies, but I supposed it's good to see you're alright."

"I'm glad you're alive, sir!" Tamama piped up and Keroro smiled at him, "Why thank you, Private! It's good to see you all alright, as well, since the little dragon told me you guys went back to that scary forest!"

Giroro began to look less relieved and more irritated. "So you thought we were lost in the forest, again?"

"Well, yeah!" Keroro confirmed.

"And you've been here the whole time?"

"Of course!" Keroro said, unaware that he was digging himself into a hole. Twilight and Fluttershy looked uncomfortable at this point and Applejack cringed.

Kururu laughed and Giroro's irritation level just kept rising.

"So you're saying we could have been in danger and you just stayed here, with that knowledge, and all you did was read books? You didn't even come out to look for us?" Keroro finally realized where Giroro was getting at and he began to break a sweat. "Well you see, uh, I knew you were with them and that you guys would be perfectly capable of finding your way back to your fearless leader!" Giroro scowled, "Well, _Sergeant_! Whether I'm there or not does us squat since our technology is crap in this world!" He held up his gun and angrily threw it to the ground with a loud clatter. "I know this because we were attacked by a monster in that forest after you took off running after the Kero Ball! My weapons were useless, and I can only imagine it was sheer luck that Kururu was able to stun it long enough for Tamama to send it flying and give us an escape route!"

Applejack was about to go step in and calm them down but Twilight stopped in her way and slowly shook her head -her face full of concern- and she whispered, "No, Applejack. They need to figure this out themselves." Applejack sighed helplessly and looked on towards the frog men. Twilight did the same.

"Well you're all alive, aren't you?" Keroro asked hastily, trying to get his point across in hopes of calming the hot-headed Corporal down.

"So?"

"And you did make your way here, right?" Keroro fidgeted nervously, hoping where he was going with this whole thing would help save his life.

"Well, yeah, but-" Giroro started, simmering down from m furious to mildly irritated, when Keroro interrupted him. "And to top it all off we also have the Kero Ball. Now we have everyone together again and got all that we need to get ourselves out of here. I'm sure the Kero Ball will be enough!"

Giroro sighed heavily, "I really hate you, sir."

"Kukuu" Kururu laughed.

"THIS CALLS FOR A PARTY!"

The Keronians, all startled by the sudden outburst, turned to see the pink pony bouncing wildly with a feral party-fueled gleam in her eyes. It was as if they'd gazed into the 7th circle of hell and back. What was wrong with this pony?

"What?" Giroro asked as Pinkie hopped closer to them.

"Well you've all had such a touching reunion we should throw a party to celebrate! I'll set it up! It's going to be great! Ain't no party like a Pinkie Party!" Pinkie squealed and Keroro laughed "Ah, I'd love a party, Miss Pinkie!" Spike sighed, "I wouldn't exactly call their reunion touching…"

Giroro shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid we really don't have the time for a-"

"But Giroro!" Keroro whined, and Tamama hopped right next to him and, with less whine and more menace, disagreed with Giroro's decision, as well. "_But Corporal we need this party_."

Giroro turned a pleading eye towards Kururu, hoping to get a 2 against 2 vote, but already felt it was a lost cause when Kururu laughed. "It's whatever the boss man says, Corporal. Kukukuu."

Pinkie's eyes widened to about the size of dinner plates and she practically erupted confetti when she shouted her enthusiasm for being able to set up another party.

"I'll have it set up a big party tomorrow! It'll be really big! It'll be a "Welcome to Ponyville SLASH! Happy Reunion SLASH! Yay New Friends SLASH! Congrats on Your First Pinkie Party EVER!" Party! It'll be GREAT!"

It was late that night and Twilight set up plenty of sleeping bags and pillows for Keroro and the others after Pinkie, Applejack, and Fluttershy left back to their homes for a good night's rest. They'd all decided that Twilight would be their host for the time being, seeing as she'd still had their Kero Ball, and really is their only hope to restore it. Keroro agreed to this, of course, as he hadn't finished reading Daring Do. Twilight chuckled and fluffed the last pillow, "Keroro, I can see you like the Daring Do series. They're very exciting." Keroro nodded vigorously as Tamama tugged gently on Twilight's tail.

"Yes Tamama?" she asked sweetly, and Tamama rubbed his little tadpole tummy with an insignia that matched the badge on his hat, "We haven't really eaten today. Could you maybe feed us?"

Twilight gasped. "Oh, of course! What do you guys eat?" It donned on her that she didn't really know anything about this species, let alone how they were able to read and speak Equestrian.

"Do you have any meaty?" Tamama asked and Twilight looked over her shoulder nervously. "Well, I don't think so, Tamama. We ponies don't particularly eat it, but I know where we could get some if you wouldn't mind waiting a teeny bit longer."

The Keronians each grabbed a sleeping bag after Twilight sent Spike out to run one more errand with Owlicious. Before they'd left, though, Kururu had handed them a personalized shopping list of ingredients for them to grab while they were out for the meat. It would be a bit longer than Tamama hoped before they were all able to eat and the others complained at Kururu for making things take longer. He responded to the negative feedback with his usual mischievous laugh.

Twilight approached the frogs and sat on the floor before them, a big hopeful smile stretched across her face. "So," she began, "I have so many questions for you guys, and I don't' even know where to start! So you're from another world? How did you get here? What's it like on your planet? What's your species' average lifespan? Do you have libraries where you're from? Your civilization seems so different from ours! Could you tell me more about it and your technology?"

Twilight rattled on and on and on faster than they could even comprehend her questions. Even Kururu looked a little lost.

Twilight's cheeks flushed and she looked away sheepishly when she saw how uncomfortable they were becoming. "I'm sorry. Sometimes I can be a total fanatic of the pursuit of knowledge and I can let myself get carried away." Keroro waved his hand dismissively, "Don't sweat it, purple. We'll tell you in time. I kinda can't handle being rushed." Twilight nodded and got up to get some drinks for them. "I've got some apple juice." she stated as she used her magic to gather four cups, and then the apple juice. "My friend Applejack made it on her farm. They're very good with apples. It's probably the best tasting apple juice in all of Equestria!"

Tamama rubbed his tummy in anticipation.

When Twilight returned with the juice, the Keronians all graciously accepted their cups. Sans, Kururu. He was a tad rude about it, but Twilight paid his behavior no mind. She watched as they each took a sip and hummed in approval. She then beamed with pride for her friend Applejack. Alien visitors liked her friend's apple juice.

Tamama had downed the juice in one gulp; Keroro drank about half of his before setting it aside to read more Daring Do; Kururu sucked his down, as well; and Giroro continued sipping away slowly and savoring it.

Twilight stood there and stared at them before Giroro turned to look right back at her; feeling a bit unnerved.

"May I ask a question or two? Please? I promise I won't get carried away, again!" Twilight put on a big, pleading grin. Giroro sighed and looked to Keroro. Keroro was really into the book. Giroro sighed again. "Fine. I don't see why not. It's the least we could do as thanks for promising to help fix our Kero Ball."

"So, this Kero Ball. What exactly does it do?" Twilight peered over her shoulder at the Kero Ball on her desk. Earlier that day Keroro had mentioned it was their greatest weapon. But how great was it, exactly? Giroro said nothing for a moment. He was uncomfortable about answering any questions about their Kero Ball before it was returned to normal, but it was too late to dwell on it once Tamama blurted out, "It has the power to destroy the entire world, and many other cool things!"

Twilight gasped and Giroro glared daggers at Tamama.

"You…aren't planning on destroying Equestria, are you?" Twilight asked cautiously and Giroro shook his head. "Honestly, we're probably never going to use it." He glared at Keroro and it went unnoticed. "But if it stays in that condition, headquarters will see us punished severely"

Twilight thought about it for a moment, then moved to her next question as if the previous topic never came up. "What it your species' average life expectancy?"

Kururu laughed before being the one to answer this time."Quite a long time kukuku"

Twilight cocked her head to the side, and was about to ask for the specifics when Spike and Owlicious returned with the groceries.

"We're back!" Spike announced and set the groceries in the section of the place that Twilight used as her kitchen and Owlicious carried the meat right over and set it next to the other groceries.

"Thanks, you two!" Twilight said.

Kururu got up from his spot, walked over to the groceries, and began pulling out the items he'd requested. Everyone watched, sans Keroro, but nobody said anything. Twilight, Owlicious, and Spike were curious and Tamama and Giroro were more frightened. That is until they realized what he was making and slowly began relaxing their bodies. He began reaching for anything he could that would aid in his cooking and helped himself to their use.

"Not my beakers!" Twilight squeaked and Kururu shrugged before setting them down and digging for something else to use. Spike handed him a pot and he took it without so much as a thanks.

Spike had gone to bed and Keroro reached the middle of the book he was reading. He commited the page number to memory and closed the book. "I'll save the rest for tomorrow."

Owlicious perched himself near Twilight's desk and Twillight, herself, went to see how Kururu's cooking was coming along. "So what did you make?"

"Curry." He stated plainly, then gestured next to the plate of curry "I even went ahead and just cooked the cow flesh for the others while I was up here."

"That was thoughtful of you." Giroro commented and Kururu turned his head to look back at Giroro.

"Don't get used to it."


End file.
